


Between Us

by Kaini



Series: Cryptage [2]
Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: M/M, cryptage - Freeform, does this count as a slow burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:13:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25538590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaini/pseuds/Kaini
Summary: Crypto discovers the messages from Mila in the King's Canyon bunkers, and Mirage can't figure out what's up with him.
Relationships: Crypto | Park Tae Joon/Mirage | Elliott Witt
Series: Cryptage [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1836634
Comments: 6
Kudos: 76





	Between Us

**Author's Note:**

> Do note: I'm pretending all 3 messages are in the same bunker, since like in-universe it makes no sense for them to be spread out. So Crypto hears all three and then has to decide what he's gonna do about it.

_Keep it between us._

It seemed easy enough sometimes, especially the nights when Tae Joon showed up at his door. He'd stood there awkwardly the first couple times, asked if he could come in, but finally he quit making it weird and would just let himself in (Mirage gave him the code but he heavily suspected Crypto already had it, hacker and all that) and make his way onto Mirage's lap (if he was just hangin' out) or into his bed. 

Mirage was finding out the guy was honestly like… super clingy when he got over the overly paranoid distance stage. He was lonely, and it was painfully obvious he hadn't let anyone else in. 

Not that he'd really let Mirage in. He tried, asked once who Crypto was writing to when he caught him on his tablet, but got a short non-answer and a quickly blanked screen for his trouble. Mirage talked all the time - about his family, about his childhood, he just - he wanted to share, that's how he was. Crypto was the exact opposite. Mirage had learned he had a mom and that was about it, he didn't mention anything else. 

And, y'know. Mirage didn't pry, but it was kinda weird to have the guy dead asleep and mostly naked in his arms and only barely know his name. 

_Tae Joon_. Mirage had searched it, because y'know… of course he had, and eventually he'd stumbled on the fact that someone named Tae Joon Park had designed the filming drones for the games. Didn't take a huge genius to see the similarities to Crypto's drone, so. Obviously. 

There was… some other stuff, too. 

_I'm a wanted man, Witt._

Crypto had said that to him once, and… well. That fit, too. Park was openly wanted for the murder of his sister, though Mirage didn't believe that shit for a second. 

Explained some things, though. Like why Crypto got this sad look in his eyes when Mirage talked about his brothers. 

Mirage was pulled out of his thoughts when Crypto jolted awake; he'd been dead asleep, Mirage running his fingers gently across the cool metal of his jaw while his thoughts ran. 

"Just me." Mirage whispered quickly, so Tae Joon could hear his voice. The man was easily startled, especially if he woke up like that. He just kinda slept uneasily a lot, which was on the list of Things Mirage was Noticing. 

The tension left Crypto at the sound of Mirage's voice, anyway, and he just huffed softly and buried his face against Elliott's chest. 

Which was so, so fucking cute. 

Absolute tragedy they had to like, get up at some point. They had a match, and Crypto liked to sneak back to his room on the ship before they all got up so no one saw him leaving Mirage's. 

Mirage could stall him a little, though, usually by soothingly running the tips of his fingers across the seam at the back of his neck where metal met skin. 

"... I should go." Tae Joon mumbled as if on cue, though he wasn't exactly making an effort to move. In fact he kinda relaxed a little more when Mirage did the stalling thing. _Success_. 

Eventually, inevitably, Crypto did pull away, but not before he pressed a kiss to Mirage's scruffy jaw. Mirage watched him get dressed with a grin he knew he was lovesick as fuck, and Tae Joon treated him to a fond little smile over his shoulder right before he let himself out. 

And God, was Mirage weak for it. The man could destroy him with a look and he was totally, one hundred percent fine with it. 

Underneath, what logical brain he did have knew he was playing with fire, but… he was gonna enjoy it while he could, because fuck it. And maybe he could actually get past those barriers and get Tae Joon to trust him, if he stuck around. 

For the moment he had to get ready; he got up, got dressed and got his holo-tech on, then headed out into the common area to ready up for their match. Wraith was already there, and she shot him a little grin from where she lingered in the shadows. They weren't on the same team at the moment, but, Wraith was his friend and they didn't make a big deal about it. She was the least competitive, and like Crypto she had her own reasons for being in the Games. 

Crypto didn't show until everyone else had already trickled in, stepping down to the platform at the last second as the announcer cued them to ready up. He liked to do that - be last so he could keep track of everyone else. 

Mirage was glad they were currently on the same squad, Bloodhound taking Mirage's other side with a respectful nod. Like with Wraith he could put their stuff aside in the arena, but he didn't _like_ having to fight Crypto. It still made his stomach turn a little every time he got the kid in his sights. Wasn't something he could _help_. 

**"Prepare for the drop."**

"You ready, kid?" Mirage said to Crypto, the tone teasing. Because that was all he responded to, when it wasn't private. 

"I'm always ready." 

After that they dropped, and the wind cut off anything more. Mirage let Bloodhound choose their landing location - the hunter was opinionated and Mirage had learned it was better to just let them lead. He liked to enjoy the drop, anyway - even if they did get to fly almost every day, there was still something exhilarating about it. And in watching Crypto flare out his jacket and goof off a little in the wind, in a rare display of actual joy.

Then the three of them landed in the Cage, and immediately all hell broke loose when another squad of no-names landed with them. Mirage managed to pick up a wingman, but out of the corner of his eye he saw Crypto jump down when he failed to get to a gun fast enough. 

Mirage lunged after him, leaving Bloodhound up top and nailing the guy on Crypto's tail in the back just in time for Crypto to pick up a rifle. 

Bloodhound could handle themself, anyway. They'd already downed the other two members of the squad by the time Mirage and Crypto zipped back up to help. 

They all looted up and headed down; they weren’t too far from the first ring, but they would have to cross the valley to get there and no one liked being out in the open down there. Too vulnerable. 

Bloodhound interrupted them halfway across the valley, though, halting suddenly. Which made Mirage antsy because again, they were really exposed. "That was not open last we came this way." Bloodhound said, pointing. 

The massive hatch that had been unearthed after the big dino-things left was propped up, open. Mirage had never seen it like that - it was always sealed shut, a slight hum under his feet when they walked over it. 

"Oh, huh." He shot a look at Crypto, and the kid raised an eyebrow. "We uh, we gonna check it out?" 

“Perhaps we should.” Bloodhound said before Crypto could, and Crypto just nodded in agreement. 

Mirage could see it, though - Crypto was curious. He let Bloodhound lead and acted like he was just going along with it, but he was curious. 

The three of them jumped down into the hatch, Bloodhound first with a scan to make sure they weren't about to get ambushed by a squad already inside. They gave the all clear and Mirage followed, then Crypto as always bringing up the rear.

It wasn't all that exciting inside, actually. There was a charge tower, which they immediately used, and weirdly enough some loot. So, probably just another thing the Syndicate was doing to spice up the games for the folks back home - loot bunkers, great place for a hot firefight. 

"Alright, we should probably go before we get jumped - " Mirage suggested, only to look over to find Crypto in the corner, staring down at the floor. 

Or well, not the floor. There was a weird vent set into the wall super low that he was eyeing, for some reason. 

_“Ee geh moh-ji?”_ Crypto whispered, clearly to himself because Mirage wasn’t gonna get that, then to Mirage, “My drone could fit there.”

“I will scout ahead outside.” Bloodhound said as they came up soundlessly behind the two of them, and made Mirage jump. Then they headed up the zip without waiting for any kind of confirmation; Bloodhound was just like that, often took the lead. 

Mirage crouched down to peer into the vent just as Crypto tossed out his drone, piloting it in. It lit up the dark space for a moment before disappearing around the corner, but Mirage didn’t see anything. 

“... Anything?” Mirage asked curiously after a moment, because he couldn’t help it. Crypto always looked so focused when he was flying the drone; it was really cute. 

“There’s a room on the other side of this door.” Crypto murmured, nodding toward the debris to their left. Mirage hadn’t even noticed the mess blocked a door. “Blank computer terminal…” 

Crypto trailed off suddenly, and then just… went silent, his jaw slightly slack. 

“... Crypto?” Mirage whispered, still crouched next to him. But he was totally off in another world, staring intently at the HUD in front of his face. 

… What was he seeing? He looked almost… shocked, by something, and it was making Mirage nervous. Were they about to get ambushed?

“Crypto?” _Tae_ hovered on his lips, but Crypto had warned him to never use his name in the arena, since the cameras were always watching. He wasn’t gonna mess that up, but Crypto was really freaking him out. 

Mirage reached out to touch his shoulder, and got shrugged off harshly and swatted at in one movement that was clearly automatic, unconscious. He was still utterly focused on his HUD. 

“... Forever family.” 

Crypto whispered it so softly Mirage almost didn’t catch it. 

“Huh?”

Crypto seemed to snap out of it, then, blinking as he logged off the drone. “I - nothing. Let’s go.” He said stiffly, standing up. 

“Wait, what? What was in there?” Mirage said, eyeballing the blocked door. 

“Nothing.” Crypto snapped, a little too quickly. “Just dusty terminals.”

“Uh, really, ‘cuz-” 

Crypto rounded on him. “ _Gaja,_ Bloodhound is waiting on us.” 

He headed up the zip without waiting for Mirage’s response. But Mirage could tell - something he’d seen in there had shaken him, and if he wouldn’t talk about it during the match Mirage was gonna have to bring it up later. 

He cast one more glance toward the blocked door before heading up the zipline himself. They popped up back in the valley, Bloodhound and Crypto immediately heading up toward the caves. 

The rest of the match went pretty typically, or actually... better than expected. They won, managed to stay out of most of the fighting up until the last moment, and dropped in on the final skirmish around the Market to come out on top. Mostly thanks to Crypto - he had the drone scout out the last two squads, knew where everyone was, and that made it easy to drop in at just the right moment. 

He didn’t seem happy, though. Not that he was ever like, jumping for joy when they won, but that usually got a smile out of him. He just seemed… distracted, glossing over Bloodhound’s congratulations and immediately disappearing to his room as soon as they got back to the drop ship. 

Mirage followed him just as soon as he could get away and get out of his gear, knocking on Crypto’s door. 

He was let in almost instantly, even from where Crypto sat at his computer, and Mirage had just enough time to catch him quickly closing something on it. Looked like a sound file, a waveform. 

“Hey.” Mirage said casually, leaning in behind his chair to kiss him on the cheek, just above the cool metal of his implants. “Whatcha workin’ on?”

“Nothing.” Crypto sighed as he tilted his head to give Mirage room, which was a pretty typical response for him. 

"You gotta be workin' on somethin', I mean - you're always working on something." 

"Nothing you need to worry about." Crypto amended, then. 

Mirage sighed, leaning on the desk so he could look Crypto in the eyes. "You can talk to me, you know." He murmured, letting his tone slip into something more serious. "I'm a bartender, I know how to keep a secret." 

"... Drop it, Mirage." Crypto whispered warningly. But like, no. Not this time. Not like every other time Mirage had tried to get him to be just a _little bit_ honest. 

"Nah, 'cuz whatever it is, it's freaking you out, and I can tell. C'mon -" he lowered his voice. "Tae Joon. Is everything okay?" 

Crypto was quiet for the longest fucking time, staring at the desktop of his computer and pointedly not at Mirage. 

"... I'm fine-"

"You're not, don't lie to me." Mirage cut him off with a sigh, actually exasperated. 

_"Fine_ , but it's none of your business, so why don't you just-"

"Was it something to do with that bunker? What was down there?" 

"Mirage-" 

_"Tae."_

Crypto was giving him that warning look, but it wasn't gonna stop him this time. 

"Look-" Mirage spoke up first, before Crypto could try to kick him out. "Whatever you think of me, I'm not gonna turn you in or slip up or - whatever. I've done fine this far, haven't I? I know what you're wanted for, about that … thing, with your sister." 

Crypto looked like Mirage had slapped him; shocked and offended at the same time before he schooled the expression. 

"... You knew?" 

"I mean, I looked up your name, lotta that stuff still out there…"

"... I suppose you would have." Crypto sighed, his gaze falling. "... I didn't do it." 

"I know. I mean, I never like… thought you did." Mirage said gently, reaching for his hand. Shockingly enough Crypto let him take it, though he still wouldn't look at him. "I heard what you said, during the match. 'Forever family.' Did you - did something in that bunker have to do with that?"

Crypto actually looked a little panicked. "I… I can't tell you. I can't, you already know too much, I…" 

"You're safe with me, don't you know that? Tae Joon?" Mirage whispered, giving his hand a little squeeze even as he tried to pull it away. 

"That's not-" Crypto was still trying to fumble his hand away, "You're not safe with _me_ , don't you get it? The people I - I'm close to, get hurt. The less you know the better."

Oh. So that was why he - right. Got it.

"I can take care of myself, you know. I'm a big boy." Mirage teased gently. 

"I'm asking you to drop it, Mirage. ...Elliott." 

Crypto like, never used his first name, so the way he said it so softly, almost pleadingly did all kinds of things to him. But also it was a really great way to get him to stop arguing, which was probably why Crypto saved it like that. 

"Alright babe. Just… know you can talk to me, okay? If you want to." 

He touched Crypto's face with his free hand, gently running his thumb along the edge of his implants, and got a little nod.

"... Thank you." Crypto whispered, leaning into the touch, which was so, so cute. He was so touch-starved sometimes, just soaked up those little bits of attention. 

"Sooo, you want me to go away so you can keep working, or…?" 

"No. I'm done for now." Crypto sighed. "... stay?" 

So, yeah, Mirage had totally just been fishing for that, but he wanted to hear it so bad. "I'm not goin' anywhere." 

He leaned in for a kiss, and Tae Joon let him, sinking into it after just a moment of tension. 

_Love you._

It hovered on Mirage's lips as his hand shifted to the back of Crypto's neck, to keep him close. He wanted to say it, 'cuz fuck, he could admit it was true; he adored the shit out of Tae Joon, but he didn't want to scare him away. It _would_ just scare him away, at that point. 

So instead he just cheekily tried to climb onto Crypto's lap where he sat at his desk, and got the cutest little disapproving sound from him as he shoved Mirage back to get up instead. 

Crypto did take off his jacket and cross to the bed, though, sitting down and motioning for Mirage to join him. So Mirage shifted onto his lap, kissing him again as Crypto slid his hands up underneath Mirage's shirt. 

He had to have help getting Crypto out of his vest and shirt, but as soon as he did he leaned down to slowly kiss the prominent scars on his shoulder, one-by-one. Those deep claw marks never really healed right, even after they'd gotten seen to - too old, apparently. The syndicate medics could fix like, _actual bullet holes_ without a trace as long as they happened like, twenty minutes ago but apparently prowler claw marks that sat there for days? Nope. Went over Mirage's head, but always felt kinda guilty seeing how bad those scarred, given it was his fault. 

Crypto just sighed and gave him room, letting him get away with the slow attention to those scars before he was tugging at his hair to get him to do more. 

The rest they fell into easily; Tae Joon kissed him like he wanted to devour him and it was so, so good. What Crypto lacked as a conversationalist he made up for with really good sex. Usually he took charge, but that night he seemed sorta distracted, still, so Mirage just - maneuvered him down onto the bed and fucked him slow, living for every soft little sound he made. 

Mirage really liked that - taking it slow until Crypto fell apart beneath him, begged him for more in that soft, pleading little tone he so rarely used and reserved just for him. And Mirage was happy to oblige him until they were both a sticky mess, collapsed together on the too-small bunk that was really just meant for short naps between matches and the occasional overnight. 

Technically they did _not_ both fit, but that just meant he got to gather Crypto really close as they both came down, and steal a few more sneaky kisses across his skin, across those scars. 

Eventually Crypto did pry himself away, but not after indulging Mirage for a longer-than-usual period of time. He usually liked to clean up pretty quick. 

Mirage did expect at least a _little_ more cuddling once they were both like, semi-decent, though. He _didn’t_ expect Crypto to ask him to leave in a soft mumble, something about getting ready for their next match tomorrow. It wasn’t even that late, and a lot of the time Mirage stayed until morning… 

Mirage didn’t press him, though. He obviously had something else on his mind, so. Best to let him work it out if he was determined to do it on his own. 

“See you tomorrow.” Mirage murmured as he stole one more kiss, and that got him a soft ‘ya’ before he was ushered out the door. 

Weirdness from the bunker thing aside, Mirage was still feeling pretty light as he headed back to his corner of the ship. Maybe after their match tomorrow they'd get another chance to uh… 'talk.' And maybe then Crypto would be in the mood to _actually_ talk about things. 

That was Mirage’s hope, anyway, though the next morning when he went to ready up for their match, Crypto didn’t show. 

It wasn’t strange for him to be late - he liked to be last, keep an eye on everyone else - but even when Mirage and Bloodhound stepped up for the drop, Crypto wasn’t there. Which honestly worried the shit out of him - was Crypto sick? He’d seemed fine the night before, and wouldn’t Mirage be sick too, because they fucked? He felt _fine._

He and Bloodhound jumped into the arena as a duo, which really sucked - they were at a huge disadvantage in trios, and though they did their best, it didn’t go well. They got knocked out of the first match pretty early, and through stealth they did okay in the second, but still only came in like… 8th. 

At least it didn’t affect their stats, since they were a man down. When it was all said and done Mirage was tired, sore and kinda pissed off - where was Crypto? Had he just blown them off, or…?

He still hurried over to Crypto’s room just as soon as he got the chance, though, worry winning out over the annoyance. Surely somebody from the syndicate would have like, at least checked on him…?

When he got to Crypto’s room, though, the door was open. A sick feeling settled in the pit of his stomach as he peered in; it was _empty._

No Tae Joon, but also nothing else - what few personal effects that had been there to begin with were gone. The drone’s stand, the little flag. And the computer was just bluescreened - wiped completely. So, he was gone. 

He _left._

Without a single word to Mirage, he ran. Mirage felt like he’d been kicked in the chest, the air leaving his lungs. He hadn’t meant a single thing to Tae Joon, or he would have said something. Left something. 

He stepped into the room, that tiny bit of hope still thinking maybe there’d be a note, or _something._

But there wasn’t. Just dirty sheets still on the bunk and that was it. He even poked halfheartedly at the computer, but it was well and truly scrubbed. 

He shouldn’t feel so betrayed; he’d known it was coming, but that didn’t stop the stupid feeling. Dumb, dumb of him to actually throw his heart into it when he knew damn well. 

Would it have changed anything, if he’d said something the night before...? 

That thought wasn’t going to leave him alone, it was never going to leave him alone, same as that hurt feeling. But it was too late, Mirage couldn’t even try to follow him - he’d left the night before, he was long gone. 

Mirage backed out of the room and shut the door; he couldn’t look at it. 

Maybe it was time to take a few weeks off. 

**Author's Note:**

> hello friends you asked for more cryptage I deliver. There's a part 3 I'm not a monster, look forward to that... you can find me playing Apex on twitch at twitch.tv/benigndirector (talk to me about my writing pls) and on uhh twitter at benign_director and on the tumbl as kai-ni thanks


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